All of our maps are authentic antique maps, printed or drawn on or about the date shown in the description. In rare instances when we offer facsimiles, we will specifically describe the map as a later facsimile and include the date of publication. Certificates of Authenticity are available upon request. Simply mention your desire to receive one in the Notes section at checkout.

Map Maker

Fast, Global Shipping

Last year we shipped over 4,500 antique maps to more than 50 countries. Maps are shipped Monday through Friday year-round. If an order is received before 2 PM PST, we will ship the order that day. If an order is received after that time, we will ship the next day. We ship maps either flat in custom packages or in specially ordered thick tubes. Shipping rates are provided as part of the checkout process.

Description

Decorative early view of the city of Florence, from an early edition of Munster's
Cosmographia.

Major landmarks (Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, etc.) are plainly visible in the view.

The view appeared in Munster's
Cosmographia, one of the most influential geographical works of the 16th Century, first published in 1544.

Condition Description

Minor damp stain at top center, not affecting printed view.

Sebastian Munster Biography

Sebastian Münster (1488-1552) was a cosmographer and professor of Hebrew who taught at Tübingen, Heidelberg, and Basel. He settled in the latter in 1529 and died there, of plague, in 1552. Münster made himself the center of a large network of scholars from whom he obtained geographic descriptions, maps, and directions.

As a young man, Münster joined the Franciscan order, in which he became a priest. He then studied geography at Tübingen, graduating in 1518. He moved to Basel, where he published a Hebrew grammar, one of the first books in Hebrew published in Germany. In 1521 Münster moved again, to Heidelberg, where he continued to publish Hebrew texts and the first German-produced books in Aramaic. After converting to Protestantism in 1529, he took over the chair of Hebrew at Basel, where he published his main Hebrew work, a two-volume Old Testament with a Latin translation.

Münster published his first known map, a map of Germany, in 1525. Three years later, he released a treatise on sundials. In 1540, he published Geographia universalis vetus et nova, an updated edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia. In addition to the Ptolemaic maps, Münster added 21 modern maps. One of Münster’s innovations was to include one map for each continent, a concept that would influence Ortelius and other early atlas makers. The Geographia was reprinted in 1542, 1545, and 1552.

He is best known for his Cosmographia universalis, first published in 1544 and released in at least 35 editions by 1628. It was the first German-language description of the world and contained 471 woodcuts and 26 maps over six volumes. Many of the maps were taken from the Geographia and modified over time. The Cosmographia was widely used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The text, woodcuts, and maps all influenced geographical thought for generations.